History Of The Intel Corporation :: essays research papers

History of The Intel CorporationThe Intel Corporation is the largest manufacturer of computer devices inthe world. In this research paper I lead discuss where, ehrn, and how Intel wasfounded, the immediate effects that Intel made on the market, their marketingstrategies, their competition, and finally, what Intel plans to do in the future.Intel didnt just start out of thin air, it was created after Bob Noyceand Gordon Moore introductory founded Fairchild Semiconductor with six other colleagues.Fairchild Semiconductor was going pretty well for about ten years when Bob andGordon decided to resign because they were tired of non being able to do thingsthe way they wanted to they proceeded to establish a new integrated cicuitselectronics company. Gordon suggested that semiconductor memory lookedpromising enough to risk startle a new company. Intel was born.Intel made quite an impact on the industriousness soon after it was founded.The sales revenues jumped enormously through Intels I nternational exspansion tomany countries including atomic number 63 and the Phillipines in the early 70s. From1969 to 1970 Intels revenues went up by almost four-million dollars Today,Intel is one of the biggest companies pulling in billions and billions ofdollars each year.Intel has had many factors over the years that has allowed it tomonopolize the computer industry thus resulting in small competition. First ofall, Intel is almost 25 years ahead of its competitors. Therefore, mostcompanies are just starting out and have infinitesimal or no effect on Intels sales.Another reason is obviously Intels reputation. They have built up such astandard of excellence that when psyche hears the word Intel they think high-quality.Intels popularity, reputation, and revenues are a direct result oftheir marketing strategies. Again, one of the most important factors that hasmade Intel so sucessful is their reputation that has been built up since theystarted. The Intel Inside program which was la unced in May of 1991 was apromotional campaign that placed the Intel Inside Logo on all computers

The History of Babylonian Mathematics Essay -- Babylonia Mathematics E

The History of Babylonian Mathematics The history of ancient Babylonia is re everyy long, save this essay is a short and to the point summery of the entire history. The history of Babylonia sounded near the end of the year 2000 BC, when invaders were fervouring the Sumer kingdom. Sumer was a powerful kingdom in the western part of Asia, and it some what occupied what would become Babylonia. After the kingdom of Sumer was destroyed the city-states of Larsa and Isin came into habilitatetle on the land once occupied by Sumer. This guide to fighting between Larsa and Isin. After hundreds of years of fighting Larsa defeated Isin. But, just as Larsa beat Isin, Hammurabi came to power in the city of Babylonia. Hammurabi went on to defeat Larsa and start a vast kingdom in the place where the Sumer kingdom apply to be. Hammurabi was a very powerful military and political leader. Also he set up a code of law stating an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, this law is called t he Hammurabi code and is unflustered used today. Hammurabis dynasty was overly called the First Dynasty of Babylonia. This dynasty control for about 200 years until 1530 BC. Under the control of this dynasty, Babylonia entered a period of prosperity and peace. The Babylonians developed an abstract form of writing based on cuneiform symbols. Their symbols were written on wet clay tablets that were baked in the hot sun. Many of thousands of these tablets have survived to this day. They had to use straight lines because curved line could not be drawn in the wet clay. They used these tablets to aid in the calculations of problems. They studied math with the help of these tablets. They studied in mathematics because having a peaceful rural area they had no need to specialize in military and warfare, so they learned math and discovered new forms of math. A tribe known as the Kassites began to attack Babylonia when Hammurabis son ruled the empire. Over the centuries, the Kassit es weakened Babylonia. Finally, around 1530 BC a Kassite dynasty was set up in Babylonia. After about 150 years, the Babylonians and the Kassites lived in peace until the Assyrians attacked Babylonia. They weakened Babylonia so much that the Kassite dynasty fell from power and the Assyrians took control. Because of an influx of many nomadic tribes, Babylonia fell into anarchy for about 200 years. During the 800s B... ...e. And if their table of reciprocals, which was used to help them do math, was used today, it would most likely confuse everybody. But, back then they had to use because they did not have calculators or computers to make math easier. We also dont use a positional number system where the base is 60 rather than the base of 10. One thing that the Babylonians used that is still in use today is the Pythagorean triples.The pick up of math he study of math is important because with out math we wouldnt have all the things we have today, such as computers, cars, pla nes, space exploring technology, etc. With out math all that stuff, which we take for granted would not be around. We would still be in the dark ages if people with a great understanding for math hadnt been there to invent new things and pull us out of the dark ages and into the techno age. even up though I may not me a mathematical genius, I realize that with out math I would have to write my whole repute out on hand instead of a computer. I could not play my video games or chat online with friends if it wasnt for math and the understanding of it. The study of math is important to society and probably always will be.

Sketches of the Valley (spanish) :: Spanish Essays

Reportaje Estampas del ValleAbstract Estampas del Valle, or Sketches of the Valley, is a book written by a well-known Chicano author, Rolando Hinojosa-Smith. The book is divided into four sections, in which he writes about the sketches of the characters he establishes, things that happen such as a sudden murder, the lives and deaths of elders in the community, and of the life of Rafa Buenrostro. Belken County a fictitious location in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. He writes of many that live there, ranging from young children, to prostitutes, to priests, ect. He writes of the dialogues, the stories, and the occurrences that are common regardless of ethnicity, with a humoristic view. His masterpiece is written in first person vote counter and omniscient author consisting of letters, pieces from journals, diaries, and recollections of conversations. Rolando Hinojosa-Smith naci el 21 de enero del ao 1929, en Mercedes, Tejas. Su padre un Mxico americano, Manuel Guzmn Hinojosa y su mad re Carrie Effie Smith, una blanca. Hinojosa naci el menor de dos hermanas y un hermano. A la edad de quince aos, el comenz publicando su primeras obras en ingls, en la publicacin Creative Bits. Despus de graduarse de la escuela secundaria en el ao 1946 a la edad de diez y siete aos, se alisto en el ejrcito donde cumpli dos aos. Hinojosa luego atendi la Universidad de Tejas en Austin, por un corto tiempo antes de su reactivacin en 1950 al ejrcito parity bit ir a la guerra de Corea. El estuvo estacionado en Fort Eustis, Virginia, donde fue director de una publicacin del campo. Luego cuando fue estacionado en el Caribe trabaj como anunciador de radi y fue director de la publicacin Carribbean Army Defense Command. Despus de su participacin en el ejrcito Hinojosa termino su educacin en la Universidad de Tejas en Austin en el ao 1954 donde se grado con un ttulo en espaol. Empez su carrera enseando gobierno, espaol, historia, y latn por un tiempo en la escuela secundaria de Brownsville, T ejas. En el ao 1969, se cas con Patricia Louise Mandley y tuvieron tres hijos, pero desafortunadamente resulto en un divorcio en el ao 1989. Hinojosa contino sus estudios de maestra en Highlands University en Las Vegas, Nuevo Mxico, y luego su doctrina en la Universidad de Illinois en Urbana. Despus de recibir su doctrina empez como profesor en Trinity University en San Antonio, Tejas, en el ao 1969.

Julius Caesar: Marcus Brutus Mistakes :: Julius Caesar Essays

Julius Caesar Brutus MistakesThe theme I picked for Julius Caesar essay is the mistakes made by Brutus.According to Mr. Holtz Brutus was stupid and umpteen mistakes. The premier one washim even association the Conspirators. The second was letting Anthony live andspeak at the funeral. The final mistake was his battle plan. Every one does cook up mistakes fewtimes, but mistakes Brutus made where plainly stupid. Ifeel the first mistake was Brutus joining the conspirators in the first place.His mine was easily manipulated by the conspirators. They gave him thejustification he needed to kill Caesar, which was its Good of Rome. Theassumption was that Caesar would eventually take the crown, which would neverless destroyed Rome according to Brutus thoughts. By making this assumption andjoining the other conspirators he set him self up for many problems for himand for Rome. This was one of the fatal mistakes made by Brutus.Brutus actually made two mistakes with Mark Antony. The first was letting MarkAntony live and the second was letting him speak alone at the funeral. WhenCassius first suggested that they should kill Mark Antony, which they should of,but the noble Brutus said Our melodic line will seem to bloody. That was not hisonly mistake with Mark Antony he also let him speak at Caesar funeral. He waswarned by Cassius, but Brutus do by him as usual. When Mark Antony spoke hegot crowd on his side and they killed all the conspirators except for Brutusand Cassius (they excepted the angry mob and left Rome). This was some more publish that was caused by Brutus.In the war Brutus makes another dumb decision. He wanted to go into Rome andtake it over, but Cassius wanted them to wait for the army to come. Of runwaythey follow Brutus decision and they are defeated. This was yet another baddecision by Brutus. This final decision he lost his life.I wonder some time who is worst Brutus stupidness or Cassius ignorance.

Lucky Shot :: essays research papers

LUCKY SHOT.I sit in my room with a gun on my left and pills on my right. I sit and think is it worth living another day? Its a difficult question, which I think whatsoever every night. I look to my left, then to my right. I should have gone to sleep I tell myself, and hope tomorrow will be different. Its time meet to give up I accentuate to think about something positive in my life barely theres nonentity to think of. perhaps the years I dont remember were good, but I doubt that. I turn to my left over again and measure at the gun. The gun isnt loaded yet but I have one bullet sitting on the table waiting for this special occasion. Maybe it would be easier to take the pills. Its much quieter and clearer that way. But maybe I should leave HELL with a bang? But then again its not my style. My whole life I was quiet I think that the suffering should end yes I grab the bottle and open the lid. For some reason I pour the pills on the bed and begin to count them. Twenty-one. T hat should do it. I grab one pill and carry it towards my mouth, but I am futile to put it in. I place the pill back on the bed. I look up at the ceiling thinking. My neck begins to shock, but it doesnt stir me Ill be dead soon. I start to wonder if my life would have been any different if God was a take leave of it. My neck begins to hurt more so I bring my head down and stare at the wall. As Im staring at the wall, I try to build up confidence to end it all. I never had any confidence. My misery will soon end. Why cant I just now do it? The world will be better off with out me, one less useless person in the world. inferno cant be worse then this.Lucky Shot essays research papers LUCKY SHOT.I sit in my room with a gun on my left and pills on my right. I sit and think is it worth living another day? Its a difficult question, which I think about every night. I look to my left, then to my right. I should have gone to sleep I tell myself, and hope tomorrow will be different . Its time just to give up I try to think about something positive in my life but theres nothing to think of. Maybe the years I dont remember were good, but I doubt that. I turn to my left again and stair at the gun. The gun isnt loaded yet but I have one bullet sitting on the table waiting for this special occasion. Maybe it would be easier to take the pills. Its much quieter and clearer that way. But maybe I should leave HELL with a bang? But then again its not my style. My whole life I was quiet I think that the suffering should end yes I grab the bottle and open the lid. For some reason I pour the pills on the bed and begin to count them. Twenty-one. That should do it. I grab one pill and carry it towards my mouth, but I am unable to put it in. I place the pill back on the bed. I look up at the ceiling thinking. My neck begins to hurt, but it doesnt bother me Ill be dead soon. I start to wonder if my life would have been any different if God was a part of it. My neck begins to hurt more so I bring my head down and stare at the wall. As Im staring at the wall, I try to build up confidence to end it all. I never had any confidence. My misery will soon end. Why cant I just do it? The world will be better off with out me, one less useless person in the world. Hell cant be worse then this.

Lucky Shot :: essays research papers

LUCKY SHOT.I lay in my room with a gun on my left and birth control pills on my right. I sit and think is it expense living another day? Its a difficult question, which I think about every night. I look to my left, then to my right. I should moderate gone to sleep I tell myself, and hope tomorrow will be different. Its time just to give up I r wipeouter to think about something positive in my life story provided theres nothing to think of. Maybe the years I dont remember were good, but I doubt that. I turn to my left again and stair at the gun. The gun isnt cockeyed yet but I have one bullet sitting on the table waiting for this special occasion. Maybe it would be easier to take the pills. Its much low-keyeder and clearer that way. only if maybe I should leave HELL with a bang? But then again its not my style. My whole life I was quiet I think that the suffering should end yes I grab the bottle and open the lid. For some reason I pour the pills on the bed and start out to count them. Twenty-one. That should do it. I grab one pill and carry it towards my mouth, but I am unable to put it in. I place the pill back on the bed. I look up at the ceiling thinking. My neck begins to hurt, but it doesnt bother me Ill be dead soon. I start to wonder if my life would have been any different if God was a part of it. My neck begins to hurt more so I experience my head down and stare at the wall. As Im staring at the wall, I try to build up confidence to end it all. I never had any confidence. My misery will soon end. Why cant I just do it? The land will be better off with out me, one less useless person in the world. Hell cant be worse then this. roaring Shot essays research papers LUCKY SHOT.I sit in my room with a gun on my left and pills on my right. I sit and think is it worth living another day? Its a difficult question, which I think about every night. I look to my left, then to my right. I should have gone to sleep I tell myself, and hope tomorr ow will be different. Its time just to give up I try to think about something positive in my life but theres nothing to think of. Maybe the years I dont remember were good, but I doubt that. I turn to my left again and stair at the gun. The gun isnt loaded yet but I have one bullet sitting on the table waiting for this special occasion. Maybe it would be easier to take the pills. Its much quieter and clearer that way. But maybe I should leave HELL with a bang? But then again its not my style. My whole life I was quiet I think that the suffering should end yes I grab the bottle and open the lid. For some reason I pour the pills on the bed and begin to count them. Twenty-one. That should do it. I grab one pill and carry it towards my mouth, but I am unable to put it in. I place the pill back on the bed. I look up at the ceiling thinking. My neck begins to hurt, but it doesnt bother me Ill be dead soon. I start to wonder if my life would have been any different if God was a part of i t. My neck begins to hurt more so I bring my head down and stare at the wall. As Im staring at the wall, I try to build up confidence to end it all. I never had any confidence. My misery will soon end. Why cant I just do it? The world will be better off with out me, one less useless person in the world. Hell cant be worse then this.

We Are Made of Star Stuff

We are wind stuff. Discuss in detail our connections to the stars as established by modern astronomy. Modern astronomy has every last(predicate)owed us to understand how the universe functions and too provides the answers to some of the unfit questions. Questions like the origin of the universe and origin of demeanor itself. It tells us that stars are the cosmic furnaces where all most all the building blocks of life and planets were synthesized. Lighter, basic and abundant elements like total heat and helium were variationed during the macroscopical Bang.During Big Bang, space expansion cooled the primal energy dominated universe and a lot of energy transformed into matter. These basic elements were then able to create the early stars and also the stars of today. Inside of these stars lighter elements fused to release colossal quantities of energy and in the process of doing that converted hydrogen and helium into heavier elementary particles. Such elements would be depos ited in the nerve of the star and are spewed out into surrounding interstellar space when the star dies an explosive death.These newly synthesized heavy elements are inbred for life to begin and evolve. 1 Hydrogen, helium and a little bit of lithium were made in the Big Bang. Hydrogen, the most abundant element accounted for around 75% of the matter, followed by helium at 25%. 2 Large quantity of these primordial gas formed clouds and such clouds were then condensed by local sobriety to form the very first stars that lit up the dark skies of early universe. 3 As the baby stars contracted, temperature in the outcome rose to extreme take aim triggering nuclear fusion/hydrogen fusion.Nuclear fusion is a process in which two or more atoms fuse to synthesize heavier atom and this process of fusing releases large quantities of energy. 4 All the ingredients/elements needed to befool the priming and all life forms on earth were created in the cores of stars. 5 These ingredients are t hen released out of the core of star into the surrounding when the giant star dies an explosive death known as the supernovae. This phenomenon occurs only to stars that are very big. Elements of up to iron tail end be made in a star and heavier than iron elements are produced in the supernovae. At least six of these essential elements compose life on earth and they are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorous. 8 Almost all life forms on earth are carbon based. This applies to the smallest living organisms (with exception of the new Inner core of a star7 discovery of arsenic based bacteria) to the biggest the blue whale and all the living plants. They all have the same basic building blocks in their DNA. 9 Those building blocks are the essential elements.All of the rocky and metallic materials that made up our planet, the iron that runs in our blood, the calcium in our teeth and bones10, oxygen atoms that form piss after combining with hydrogen, and, nitrogen and oxygen atoms that make up most of the atmosphere of earth are all products of stars billions of years ago. 11 As you can see in the picture above all of the heavier elements (above H and He) and including helium are made by the stars. The elements shown on the cross-section of the picture form heavier elements, they make up all the elements we discovered so far the elements on the periodic table.Stars begin its life mostly made out of hydrogen and helium. The breakdown of hydrogen and helium in our sun is seventy percent and twenty eight when it started its life. 12 The building of heavier elements begins with hydrogen. Hydrogen is taken four at a sentence to form a single atom of helium. This process goes on for ninety percent of a stars life. When a star runs out of hydrogen, it starts fusing helium atoms to stay alive(predicate) (producing energy to fight its own immense gravity from causing itself to collapse). Three atoms of helium are fused in the process of nuclear fusi on to form an atom of carbon.As the process of fusing moves to next heavier atoms the duration of fusion process of newer atom becomes a lot shorter because for fusing atoms higher than hydrogen the number of available atoms for fusing is far less than the number atoms available when the star was fusing hydrogen for example. Next in line is oxygen. Adding one more helium to the carbon makes oxygen. Nitrogen is also made in the stars. 12 Without oxygen life as we know cannot survive. This process goes onto making silicon and iron. Nuclear fusion stops at iron because temperatures in star dont reach high enough to fuse iron.So how do the elements heavier than iron form? The answer to this question lies in the size of the star. Only big stars (much bigger that our sun) are capable of producing a supernovae. Only such a catastrophic explosion can break the boundary set by iron and produce heavier atoms to fill the rest of the periodic table of elements. From the dusts and particles lef tover of dead stars combined together to form asteroids and comets. Asteroids clumped together can form planet core. So life on earth basically began with the basic material that was available.These material/large molecules essential for the formation of living cells are proteins, carbohydrates (sugar), fats, and nucleic acids. Its been found that meteorites contains essential stuff like amino acids (proteins made of amino acid), sugars, fatty acids (building block of fats), and bases for nucleic acids. For instance, the Murchison meteorite that crashed in Australia in 1969 is found to contain chains of fatty acids, different types of sugars, all five nucleic acid bases, and more than 70 kinds of amino acids (life forms use only 20 amino acids). 3 We are star stuff in the red-letter words of Dr. Carl Sagan. The atoms that made up our bodies are created in the innards of stars that died many aeons ago. The planet we live on is made up materials like iron, silicon and carbon, etc are all forged in the natures grandest factory we know as stars. The air we breathe to stay alive is a product of stars. Stars also nourish life. The sun ray helps plants with photosynthesis helps them break down carbon dioxide into organic compounds (sugars). Plants are a major source of food for humans and other creatures.Over the aside few centuries (mainly 1900-2000) astronomy has made many eye opening discoveries about the origin of the whole universe, our fate, and that we human are not the centre of the universe. It encourages humility in us and makes us better understand our connections the cosmos. References 1. Carl Sagan (No Date). Cosmos-We are Star Stuff Available http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=0UR2L_4ic6Y&feature=related 2. Lawrence Krauss (3-27-2009). Life, the Universe and Nothing sing Available http//www. youtube. com/watch? =rdvWrI_oQjY 2011-04-04 video start at 5111-5216minutes 3. Dr. Tony Phillips (7-18-2000). X-ray Star Stuff online Available http//science. na sa. gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast18jul_1m/ 2011-04-04 4. Wikipedia-Nuclear Fusion (no date). online Available http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Nuclear_fusion 2011-04-04 5. surface-to-air missile Neill (presenter) (no date). Space with Sam Neill Available http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=0zU1F6liZKo 2011-04-04 6. =3 7. Mike S (12-7-2010). Science & Religion 8 We are all made of stars online Available http//www. wheatandtares. org/2010/12/07/science-religion-8-we-are-all-made-of-stars/ 2011-04-04 8. Jason Palmer (12-2-2010). Arsenic-loving bacteria may help in hunt for alien life online Available http//www. bbc. co. uk/news/science-environment-11886943 2011-04-04 9. Dan Solomon (12-2-2010). NASA Announces Arsenic Based Life Forms- But Are They Going To extinguish Us? online Available http//www. asylum. com/2010/12/02/nasa-announcement-aliens-arsenic/ 2011-04-04 10. Korintherne (7-7-2006).Reasons & Facts Cosmic Connection online Available http//curezone. com/blogs/fm. asp? i =982845 2011-04-04 11. Dayanara (MA) (No Date). We are star stuff online Available http//www. free-daily-motivational-self-improvement. com/we-are-star-stuff. html 2011-04-04 12. Neil Tyson (presenter) (No Date). Elements Forged in Stars Available http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=uKqvjEE0wFg 2011-04-04 13. Leslie Mullen (9-5-2005). Building Life from Star-Stuff online Available http//www. astrobio. net/exclusive/1702/building-life-from-star-stuff 2011

Punishment in America Research Paper Essay

AbstractPunishment in the States has principally four goals Retribution ( meritd penalty), Deterrence, Societal fortress and reclamation. Ultimately all this punishment are aimed at maintaining societal order, but the justification for the sentence are closely tied to the American values of judge and mediocreness. However the justice sought by offense victims often conflicts with the fairness to the offenders. Its therefore important to note that while punishment in America is meant to correct the offender the effectiveness of method used on the criminal determine the outcome to correct the anomaly. Restorative justice has proved to be a new method of restoring justice among the offenders. Introduction Punishment reflects the dominant values of particular moments in history. By the end of 1960s for example, the number of Americans who were sentenced to imprisonment decrease because of widespread commitment of rehabilitating offenders. By contrast since 1970s record numbers of offenders perk up been sentenced to prison because of an emphasis of imposing strong punishment for the purposes of retribution, deterrence and incapitation. At the beginning of 21st century voices are calling for addition of restorative justice as a criminal sanction. According to George and Smith, 2005, there are mainly 4 types of punishment Retribution/Deserved punishment, Deterrence, Societal protection and Rehabilitation.Effects of the 4 Types of PunishmentsRetribution/Deserved punishment Retribution is a punishment inflicted on a person who has infringed on the rights of others so deserve to be penalized. Retribution means that those who have d sensation a particular crime should be penalize alike in proportion to the gravity of the crime or the extent to which others have been made to suffer. In retribution punishment, offenders must pay their debts. Some scholars adopt that the desire for retribution is a basic human emotion. They maintain that if the state does not provide retributive sanctions to reflect community revolution at violative acts, citizens will take the law into their own hands to punish offenders. Under this view the failure of government to satisfy the populations desire for retribution could produce social chaos. Using the concept of just deserts or deserved punishment to define retribution, some theorists argue that one who infringes on the rights of others deserve to be punished. In this view, punishment should be only for the wrong inflicted and not primarily to achieve other goals such as deterrence, societal protection or rehabilitation (George and smith, 2005)Deterrence The roots of deterrence are traced back in 18th century in England among the followers of social philosopher Jeremy Bentham. He adopted Benthams theory of utilitarianism, which holds that human behavior is governed by the individuals calculation of the benefits versus the cost of his /her acts. Before stealing money for example, potential offenders woul d consider the punishment that others have received for uniform acts would thereby be deterred. There are two types of deterrence general deterrence which presumes that members of the public on observing the punishment of others will conclude that the crime outweighs the benefits. For general deterrence to be effective, the public must be constantly reminded about the likelihood and severity of punishment for various acts (George and smith, 2005) The punishment must be severe enough to instill fear of the consequences of committing a crime. By contrast specific deterrence targets the decision and behavior of the offenders who have already been convicted. Under this approach, the center and kind of punishment are calculated to discourage that criminal from repeating the offence. The punishment must be severe enough to cause the criminal to learn the consequence of my crime were too painful, I will not commit another crime. The concept of deterrence has obvious difficulties (Nagin, 1998). Deterrence assumes that all people think before they act.As such deterrence does not account for people who commit crimes under the influence of drugs or alcohol or psychogenic disorder. The effectiveness of deterrence is influenceed as well (Nagin, 1998). A study on deterrence effects of punishment would have to examine the impacts of different forms of criminal sanction on various potential lawbreakers. Therefore while legislation often cites deterrence as a rationale for certain sanctions, no one really knows the extent to which sentencing policies based on deterrence achieve their objective.Societal protection This assumes that society can keep offenders from committing further crimes by detention in prison or by execution. Offenders can be confined within secure institutions and effectively prevented from committing additional harm against society for the duration of their sentence. Capital punishment is the ultimate method of societal protection. Research has suggest ed that a relatively small number of offenders commit a large number of violence and property crimes (George and smith, 2005). Questions come out about how to determine the length of the sentence. Presumably offenders will not be released until the state is sure that they will no longer commit crimes. Therefore the limit of this punishment is that it cannot predict accurately which offenders will commit to a greater extent crime upon release.Rehabilitation This refers to the goal of restoring a convicted offender to a constructive place in society through some form of training or therapy. Americans want to believe that offenders can be treated and resocialised in ways that allow them to terzetto a crime free productive life upon release. Over the last hundred years, rehabilitation advocates have argued for techniques that they claim identify and treat the causes of criminal behavior. Rehabilitation focuses on the offender. Its objective does not imply any consistent relationship b etween the severity of the punishment and the gravity of the crime .according to concept of rehabilitation, offenders are treated, not punished and they are returned to the society when they are cured. Studies on the results of rehabilitation have challenged the idea that criminal offenders can be cured (Margolis, 1974).Conclusion The above methods have proved to be not too effective and the new approach to punishment is restorative justice. Restorative justice view crime as more than a violation of penal law. The criminal act practically and symbolically denies the community. This approach means that losses suffered by the crime victim are restored and the affright to the local safety is removed and the offender again becomes a fully participating member of the community. Shifting the focus to restorative justice requires a 3 way approach that involves the offender, the victim and the community. This approach may include mediation in which the three actors devise ways that all ag ree are fair and just for the offender to repair the harm done to victim and community.ReferencesGeorge, F. C. and Smith E.G, (2005) Criminal Justice in America, Criminology, 4th Edition.Nagin, D.1998 Criminal deterrence research at the onset of the twenty-first century crime and justice review of research, Vol. 23.Margolis, E.1974 The effectiveness of rehabilitation punishment as a cure for crime, research paper.

New York Day Women in Krik? Krack!

Nascine Coote English 102 Mrs. Tracy Nashel New York Day Women Suzette is remarkable cause about her beat, more than she is about her. Its clearly that Suzette and her m new(prenominal) cast off conversations and gets along with just minor issues. However Suzette mother always assumes her missy is fine and e genuinelything is going well for her. Its clear that Suzette does not populate a lot about her mother, and probably was not that close to her. One example is when Suzette was following her mother she stated she didnt know her mother her mother ate frankfurters, but knows her mother should not eat nothing with sodium.Suzettes mother is not interested in he lady friend. Suzettes mother was not too much interested in her personal life she always watch lottery on channel 11, and is okay with denture and claims her significant other does not kiss her as he use to, she have conversation with herself while in the kitchen peeling the skin off the poultry. Suzettes mother told her d aughter how of a good stewardess she would be and how she know she was doing well in school so she didnt evening had to find out anything from her teacher.The Narrator was curious to see what her was about and follows her to a park to find out what she was up to and she found out she attends to other peoples kids and bought food for him and gave more loving and interest in him that she ever receive. One example was when she peak in his big bird book as if she was very interested. Her daughter must be surprised by this because she has never showed interest in her especially the parents-teachers associate meetings she should have attended when she was a student in school. The Narrator also describes her mother family back ingleside in Haiti.She lost six of her seven sisters in Ville Rose and never fined the strength to return for their funerals. She had a conversation with her daughter about sending garment to Haiti, but she never really send those clothes and never travel back to H aiti. Suzettes mother had plans of doing good deeds but never have a will to fulfill them. She does not seem to shows a lot of interest in her family, but rather other people and their well being. Suzettes close attention, while she observed her mother with another barbarian. She feeds the ladys child with food she bought and Suzette also observed this.She also observe how easily the child hand slip into her mothers hands easily like he knows her for a long time when he raises his face he present at her as if he looking at the sky maybe this work because of her height or something else that was not clear. The childs face was very happy when she gave him the soda, she helps him to do everything for example put the straw in his drink and not just assume he got it like how she would do her own daughter in assuming she is doing well because she just want to believe so.She also takes interest in the book he had, but she never did in Suzettes parents teachers meetings. The Narrator mot her will tell her the most wonderful things in the world, but she doesnt really goes the extra miles to make certainly she was doing well in school, she also trusted her daughter to be great and take responsibility for her own studies and to make her proud. Suzette was curious about her mother direction and finally examine how she interest with other peoples kids which is way different from how she interacted with her.

Management of Pt.Asuransi Jiwasraya

INTI College Ind unitarysia Organization and Management PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya Jessica Khou, Afifa Jindan, Jocelyn Halim 3/8/2013 Mr. Jonny Wiguna Jl. Ir. H. Juanda No. 34, Jakarta Pusat 10120, Indonesia 8 March 2013 Dear Mr. Jonny Wiguna, Presented to the commissary of this organization, this is a managerial describe for the breaker point of 2012-2013. As requested in a butting conducted on February 2013, this is a report of the managerial status of this organization as ascertained during the present year.This report consists of matters regarding the management theory used to conduct the business, the environment surrounding the organization and inside the organization itself, defining the mental synthesis of the organizations employees as well as their set tasks as well as the regulation of activities in the organization. Also discussed in this report atomic number 18 the management st pointgies currently applied by the organization and what is find to be motivating for the employees in the organization.Following incessantlyy(prenominal) the observed and described matter, this report likewise includes several suggestions that, as the writer of this report believe, will be practiced in terms of the optimization of exercise of gentleman capital and onlyocation of resources. ______________________ (Claire Afifa Halim) 8 March 2013 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The report provides an analysis of the management of the PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya. It addresses the issues associate to the current management system and provides an information of how the gild is in relation to its environment.The report in every case consists of recommendation regarding the improvement of the current management system in order for the entirelyiance to reach its current goal. Analysis is completed by observing the activities and achievements of the party in the latest years of its business. To find out the familiar management form of the familiarity, identification of the theory t hat most resembles the current management system is conducted. As a result of the observations, it scum bag be summarized that the connection has an boilersuit supporting environment for its business.The model of management used closely resembles Max Webers management theory and therefore the companions mental synthesis and jobs be clearly defined and allows the attach to to be developing in its professionalism. PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya has to a fault applied comfortably motivational methods that allow it to piss good relationships in the midst of the employees of the friendship. However, as observed by the writer of this report, the branch of the company is not at its maximum potential.Several accompanimentors that is found to be holding the company back atomic number 18 the lack of furtheranceal effort, loss of flexibility (initiative) and personal motivation of the employees due to the current management system used, inability to utilize engineering science in effe ct, limitation of growth space because of the limitation of target grocery store and the fact that the company has not yet responded to one of the major insurance policy need of Indonesian. Recommendations made for the company hence include 1. To create a syariah found insurance service for the Muslim majority of Indonesians 2.Focus more on each individual employee to develop the quality of manpower 3. Use applied science in its effort to market the product 4. Increase the budget allocated for promotion and increase the frequency of promotion much(prenominal) as done the use of billboard, magazines and online advertisements 5. Become more globalized to reach their long-term organizational goal of being recognized globally TABLE OF CONTENT 0. 1 Introductions. .. 1 0. corporation Backgrounds.. 2 0. 3 Management Theory 3 0. 4 Company environment 4 0. 5 Organizational Structures. 0. 6 Motivation. 0. 7 strategical Management . 8 Conclusion and Recommendation. 0. 9 List of Refe rences.. 0. 1 INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Authorization This report is made in order to draw further feedback for the company called PT. Asuransi JIwasraya. 1. 2 Limitations Because we dont feed a chance to visi t 1. 3 Scope of Report This report will go on several detail points, such as management theory that been use by PT.Asuransi Jiwasraya, the companys environment, its in addition show the organization structure inside PT. Asuransi JIwasraya with their job description, and we too going to explain about the motivation inside the company, and the strategic management process that put one across been use by the company, we also included our recommendation to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of company management system. 0. 2 lodgeS BACKGROUND Pt. Asuransi Jiwasraya is a life insurance company that has been established since the year 1859. The motto of the company is secure your life.PT. Asuransi Jiwasrayas vision is to become a sure and preferred company to provide a upsh ot for insurance call for and financial planning. (http//www. jiwasraya. co. id/static. php? cat_id=1&id=8&lang=id) It focuses on providing life insurance for customer and helping customer make financial plans in conformity to the developing environment where making financial decisions become more challenging. The company is owned by the governments and is a trustworthy company that has been a preferred insurance provider by several big companies.Although it is already big itself, the company faces competition and is trying to become one of the five top insurance company in Indonesia and even tackles competition from the global market. To do this the company focuses on improving the effectiveness and the efficiency of the work by improving the quality of workforce, technology and by trying to reach segments that grow not yet been reached previously. New products are always developed in order to meet the ever-changing needs of customers. PT.Asuransi Jiwasraya develops its profes sionalism in the business and has currently won several awards including a Superbrand award for the category of Consumers Favorite Brand. Other than that it has also won a World pay Award for the second time in the year of 2011. In all its business efforts, the organization builds good relationship with both the employees and the society in commonplace through social activities. The companys subdisiaries include PT. Stannia Binekajasa and Koperasi Karyawan Jiwasraya. 0. 3 MANAGEMENT THEORYThe management theory that choose been used by PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya, as observed, fundament be identified as Max Webers theory of management. The management theory of Max Weber is made in the early year of 1900, this management theory are based on the theory of authority structures and relations is based on an ideal type of organization Weber called a (bureaucracy). The bureaucracy that Weber nurse make should cede a division of labor, authority hierarchy, formal selection, formal rules and regulations, im nature, and career orientation. The goal of weber making his scientific management theory is to make the work activities can be done in the large conclave. PT. Asuransi jiwasraya is a quite large group. Thus, it uses Weber management theory because allows this company running their business more effectively and more efficiently. PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya encourage workers to work according to the action that the company has made, as evidently shown in the clear roles of several surgical incision that are specified in its website. The company has made a structure of work for individual departments so as to increase efficacy and efficiency and reduce redundant effort on issues.Each worker can focus on the task assigned specially to them, so that the workers can work well to take on the customers needs and wants. PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya can be said to have a division of labor as tasks are spread out among the workers. PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya also have a formal selection in selecting people to work in their company, they selected the people based on their technical qualifications. This is because PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya want their workers to be professionals in their scope of work and have the integrity and competency in all the work especially in the field of insurance and financial planning.PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya also have formal rules and regulation, they have the standard operating procedure that is clear to all the unit of work, all the workers also have to provisions a minimum level of health of the company (RBC), and all the workers have to get wind to the customers, identify, meet and even exceed the customers needs as well as anticipating the customers needs in the future. The workers are also expect to adjust according to the customers brasss. PT.Asuransi Jiwasraya also have career orientations where managers are career professionals not owners of units that they manage, sot in this company the managers make sure that the workers work we ll to satisfy the customers needs and wants but the managers is not the owners of what they manage. In PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya the owners are the shareholders. So because of that PT Asuransi Jiwasraya are using the management theorys of Max Weber because PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya has fulfill the bureaucracy of Max Weber. The Max Webers theory is favorable to the company because it allows the company to focus its effort on its clear formal goals.Governments company are also prone to be said as full of corruption, collusion and nepotism Max Webers theory of management as a model used by PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya can reduce the chance of the issues as employees are appointed based on their performance and competence instead of their favorability among the workers. 0. 4 COMPANYS ENVIRONMENT Environment are divided into two micro and macro. According to businessdictionary. com, micro environment is defined as factors or elements in an organizations immediate area of operations that continue i ts performance and decision-making freedom (http//www. usinessdictionary. com/definition/microenvironment. html) micro enviroment consist of customers, suppliers, competitors, and pressure groups. 1. Customer. PT . Asuransi Jiwasraya is customers oriented there for customers are of significantly highimportanceto the company. Thus, all the products develop by Jiwasraya is base on specific segmentation of its customers the products that are available until now are tailored to meet the needs of these groups of customers a. Averse investor (example product JS Plan Dollar) b.Adult with children (example product Dana Multiproteksi Plus c. People in general (example Asuransi Kecelakaan Diri) d. Organizations(example porduct Asuransi Kesehatan) e. Old people (example porduct Jaminan Hari Tua f. Students (example porductJS Prestasi) g. Workers (example porduct Dana Fleksibel) 2. Suppliers. buss must secure that the daily requirement (supplies) that is needed by the company are sets in the lowest price, and the manager have to ensure that the suppliers delivers the needed inputs right on time.So the managers of PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya have to make sure that all the things that the company needs to keep the company running has been fulfilled by the suppliers, because suppliers not only have to cover up the equipment for the company, also provide the financial and labor inputs, so to keep the performance of PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya , the managers of PT. Asuransi jiwasraya have to choose the suppliers wisely, because suppliers is one of the important things to keep the performance of the company. 3. Competitors.In all types of organizations, realise or non-profit have competitors, and managers cannot afford to ignore the competitors. PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya also have some competitors, and they cant change that, but they can avoid the competitors by broad better performance to the customers. Competitors can be a positive influence or a blackball influence. A healthy comp etition encourages businesses to pursue the fulfillment of the needs of customers, thus increasing the quality of product and satisfy customers better.But if company is unable to keep up with the competition in the market by utilizing all resources, then it may become a bad influence resulting in the fall of the organization as a whole. Example of PT. Asuransi Jiwasrayas competitors include PT. Asuransi Jiwa Manulife, PT. prudent Life Assurance and PT. Asuransi Jiwa Sinarmas. 4. Pressure groups are groups of Non-profit and usually voluntary organization whose members have a common cause for which they seek to influence semipolitical or bodily decision makers to achieve a declared objective.The managers must recognize the special interest groups that attempt to influence the actions of organization. However, it does not seem that the company has any pressure group. The second environment is macro environment. According to businessdictionary. com Macro environment is define as Th e major external and uncontrollable factors that influence an organizations decision making, and match its performance and strategies (www. businessdictionary. com/definition/macro-environment. htmlixzz2NSE44Kgp) macro environment consist of 1. Economic conditions. http//www. worldbank. rg/en/country/indonesia/overview Indonesia continues to make a significant economic growth, in July 2012 the baseline outlooks for Indonesia is 6% and increase to 6,3% on the year of 2013, and because of that the country gross national income is rise from $2. 200 in the year of 2000 to $ 3. 200 in the year of 2009. So it also make a good impact for the financial management of PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya. 3. Political conditions http//asean. fta. govt. nz/indonesia-political-situation/ http//directaction. org. au/issue35/currents_undermining_indonesian_political_ constancy http//www. orbes. com/2009/07/17/indonesia-jakarta-economy-hotels-opinions-contributors-yudhoyono. html Indonesia has a quite stable political condition. Legal rules are established and internal conflicts have currently subsided. Indonesia has also improved in terms of its democracy as the dictatorship of Suharto was ended. Despite divergent political issues such as corruption and legal reformation, Indonesia was able to tackle difficulties in politics such as the bombing that happened last year. Due to this stability in political environment, companies in Indonesia including PT.Asuransi Jiwasraya enjoy predictable influence of law on their business. In other words, any loss derived from legal system version can be eliminated. The major political flaw of corruption in Indonesia however, does affect the business in a negative way, as it creates a negative perception of any government-related organization in the mind of its citizens. 4. Sociocultural conditions. Every customers have a changing attitudes and response. So managers must adapt their practices to changing expectation of the society, as this value, cus tom change so managers must also change. PT.Asuransi Jiwasraya is offering a program to make the customers feel secure in every aspect of their life, So the managers job is to make a new-fangled innovation to make the customer more satisfy and feel more secure. So PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya can meet the changing expectations of the customers. In Indonesia, majority of the society is Muslim. This means that there is a need for the company to understand that services, especially a monetary service such as insurance has a differentiated regulations to the people of Indonesia, aside of the government regulation. The company should respond to this by broad an appropriately related service. . Technological conditions. The ever increasing complexity and power of technology also affects the organization. All companies in the current era have to be able to take advantage of technology development. This is because it can increase the value of work done. As a part of a society where technology i s growing rapidly, PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya has adapted to the technology and utilizes some unspoilt technology to help its processes. In the process of communion, for example, PT. Jiwasraya have always tried to apply the latest in communications technology complements the speed and accuracy of service.The technology is called the JL-Indo and V-SAT. Through Indo JL-policy printing process can be done at the branch where the policy issued, while the V-SAT is a communications technology that connects the entire locating PT. Jiwasraya both Head Office, regional Office or Branch Office into a single unit (on line). PT. Jiwasraya use this technology to support for having effective communication environment. Other than that, the company has also taken advantage of the limitless possibility of internet such as through the creation of website and the establishment of e-procurement system. . 0 COMPANY ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES Managers and their job descriptions get on with of Comissioner 1. Djonny Wiguna 2. M. Sapta Murti 3. Sumiyati 4. Sumyana Sukandar Comissioners are the governments officials that are in charge of the company as a whole. Comissioners make company regulations and decides on policies regarding external factors of the company such as lands and environments. Comissioners also train and employs people for the managerial positions in the company. (http//www. mrsc. org/subjects/governance/responsibilities. aspx) Board of Directors . President Director Hendrisman Rahim The president handler have a job to jumper cable the implementation of the management company for the interests and objectives of the company, the president director also have to be the coordinator of all the other members of the Board of Directors in carrying out the duties and authority of the Board of Directors are set out in the Articles of Association, the president director have the state to oversee the Secretariat discussion section and the Division of Internal Control Unit. 2. Director of Coverage Hendrisman RahimThe director of coverage have a job to setting the culture of the company, director of coverage also have a job to developing system and direction for the company, director of coverage also have a job leading the executive/ precedential management of the company (including firing and hiring) . 3. Directors of Marketing De Yong Adrian The marketing director is accountable for the entire operation of companys marketing department, the director of marketing have the responsibility to make the company is known by the customers, the directors of marketing also supervises and coaches the companys marketing team. 4.Directors of Finance Hary Prasetyo Finance Director has overall control and responsibility for all financial aspects of company strategy and is evaluate to analyse figures and implement recommendations based on these findings with the most profitable outcomes, the financial management often managing and leading a team through difficult per iods including month end, year end and annual budgeting, a Finance Director would have excellent communication skills with all levels of staff, often having to work with various departments to help them plan and manage their own budgets. Division Heads 1. Division Head of Secretariat SumarsonoSecretariat is defined as the administrative department of governmental organization(http//www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/secretariat). The administrative department is usually responsible for daily accounting, organizational agenda and of messages from and to the organization. A secretary as a part of the secretariat is also responsible to assist directors. 2. Division Head of Internal Control Unit Erry Syafruddin This divisions work is to make sure that all the units in the company work in unity with the predetermined objectives and evaluating work quality of people working in the organization.They also check documents that are related to observed issues filed by the directors as well as preparing appropriate letters of response 3. Division Head of Finance Accounting and Collection Danang Suryono Finance division psyches task is to solve issues related to finance. The department of finance makes financial policies for the sake of the company and report any error to directors. Finance division maneuver creates the budget plan of the company and forsee any financial chance or problem that the company may face. 4.Division Head of Investment Syahmirwan This division makes policies and plans on what assets the company should invest on or sell in order to keep the companys financial attributes strong. The division monitor allthe assets owned by the company and calculate investment risks for the company. 5. Division Head of humanity Resources Udhi Prasetyanto Deals with the planning and organizing of human capital of the company. Resolves any problems between the workers of the company and file the profiles of individual employees.Is also responsible to consult the w orkers in relation to their work and any complaints about the company, thus making them in charge to file complaints to the different departments in the company. The division manages the placing of new employees and making sure that new employees are able to do their expected work. Training and internship are also the fields that human resource department are responsible for. 6. Division Head of General and Fixtures Kompyang Wibisana The division head of general and fixture have a job to construct the annual work programe for PT .Asuransi Jiwasraya for the year, the head of general and fixtures also have responsibilities to implement administrative affairs public relations and cooperation with other parties, the head of general and fixtures also have to do the storage, distribution and maintenance of equipment items. 7. Actuarial Division Head Iswardi Division that computes the risk and probability of death, marriage and birth and help insurance company determine their rate based on the statistical observation result.The division makes sure PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya obtain profit from the determined rate of service. 8. Head of Division of Underwriting Retail Corporate Umi Ratih Underwriting sell is the one who have responsibilities for providing effectiveness and efficient management of all underwriting department, this includes overseeing that the underwriting of all loan types offered by HomeStreet Bank, occurs in a timely manner and in accordance with company and investor guidelines. . Head of Division of Agency Retail Corporate G. Agung Nugraha Susanta The head of agency retail have to be responsible to development as per retail standards and ensuring adherence to timelines, Division of agency retail is a people who is responsible for selling the product of PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya that only in the form of retail and also have to manage all the management of agency retail in PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya. 10.Division Head of Retail Corporate Selling Fitriansyah Th e head of retail and corporate selling have a job to watch and coordinate all the governments and staff division of retail and corporate sales according to the span of control, head of retail also have to coordinate and be responsible for the creation of command updates in accordance with the development of market industry insurance matters relating to strategy (Pattern) Retail and corporate sales. 11.Head of Marketing Division Leonard Tambunan The job of the marketing division is to manage product, price, distribution and promotional strategy for the company. This means that the division plans on what products to be made, where it will be marketed, and the price of the product and how to create better company image while meeting the needs of the costumers through the value of the product. 12. Division Head of Information engineering science Ari Faizal Aliaini The division head of information have a job to oversee the development, implementation, and use of technology throughout t he firm.The division head of information technology also have the responsibility to range the information systems and telecommunications activities, including determining user requirements, recommending practical solutions, and leading firm-wide efforts to improve the effective use of technology, the division head of technology also have responsibilities to provide expertise and support during system upgrade, installation, conversion, and file maintenance. 13.Division Head of Pension Fund Financial Institution Lusiana The division manages the fund specified for the subsidy fund for the employees that retires from the company due to age, health or disability factors. It ensures that retired employees are given their rights so that they may gain benefit as they have been proficient to the company during their year of services. In this way, the company continues to make employees feel that they are appreciated. In general, Division Heads are responsible of supervising management staf fs properly.They are expected to be in charge of interpreting regularizations into policies that the division should follow in their activities. Division Heads are also in charge of making necessary changes and proposing plans regarding their divisions in a way that will help the division to develop. One of the jobs of a division head is to be a leader for the people who work in the division. Therefore, a division head should be able to aid the workers, oversee and evaluate their work and give proper feedback to the workers. Other than that they are responsible to create a good relationship between the division and customers in general. http//www. bestsamplejobdescription. com/director-job-description-2/division-director-job-descriptio/) Regional Managers 1. James Tomasoa Jakarta I Regional Manager 2. Saripudin Bandung Regional Manager 3. I Nyoman Surata Semarang Regional Manager 4. Eddy Susanto Surabaya Regional Manager 5. Libertus Ompusunggu Makassar Regional Manager 6. Bachruddin Manado Regional Manager 7. Novi Rahmi Palembang Regional Manager 8. Sulik Harsono Malang Regional Manager 9. Jumino Balikpapan Regional Manager 10. Karmanto Pekanbaru Regional Manager 11. Dafras Jakarta II Regional Manager 12. Dwi Laksito Pontianak Regional Manager 3. Rotua Pasaribu Medan Regional Manager 14. Adi Susanto Denpasar Regional Manager 15. M. Idris Cirebon Regional Manager 16. M. Arifin Yogyakarta Regional Manager 17. Supardi Sudiro Jakarta III Regional Manager Regional managers are responsible for driving sales in the area of their responsibility through good leadership, customer-relationship and strategies. In businesses where the product is in the form of goods, they are responsible for merchandising of the business, but as PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya is a service company, regional managers are not expected to be responsible for merchandising.Regional managers must be able to communicate the companys goals to each individual stores in its region. They also have to monitor that all activities are done in accordance with the regulations of the company and that all conduct meets the expectancy of the corporation. (http//www. paper-source. com/jobs/Regional-Manager-Job-Description. pdf) 6. 0 COMPANY MOTIVATION Every company must have a goal that needs to be achieved, to do that every company have to be capable of using all of resources that the company has including human resource. Human resources are very important on every step that the company has made.The success of the company is depends on its performance. The performance of the workers inside the company depends on personality and ability, task difficulty, resource availability, working conditions and chance or luck. But besides that, another important factor that contributes to performance is the motivation given by the company to its workers is given by the company. One of motivation that is given by PT. Asuransi Jiwasrayal is by providing the compensation monetary. Compensation monetary is a mo tivation that is given by the company by giving the employees a reward in the form of money.And the result is, PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya has successfully gaining the performance of the workers. PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya also can motivate the employees by making many events that can allows relation of employees to grow. So by making many events between the employees it can gaining the sense of belonging of the customers. PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya have a program called management performance system the goal from making this performance management system is to measure the performance of the workers work, and the result is that the employees on PT.Asuransi Jiwasraya not yet giving the best of their performance. The require for the employees to achieve the goal of the company are still small, because of that reason PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya is motivating employees by giving a job enlargement to the employees. By giving the job enlargement it can make the employees to dedicate more effort into their jobs, So it can make the employees feel that they have to achieve more than what the company has expected, so it make a good motivation for the employees, and also give a good impact for the company performance because the employees will act in the companys favor. . 0 Companys strategic management process 1. Identifying the companys current mission, goals and strategies Companys mission Provide certainty, security and convenience through the use of competitive and innovative solution to customers in need of insurance and financial planning. The companys current goal is to be one of the top five biggest insurance company and to in long term becomes a globally known insurance company. 2. Identifying external factors Opportunity and threatThe luck that arises for companies in insurance service providing business for the year of 2013 is the trend of increasing number of people purchasing insurance online. The threat faced by the companies is the fact that insurance company often mis-s ell their product. This means that an insurance company might have sold their product to people who really does not need the product. another(prenominal) threat faced by the company is peoples negative attitude towards insurance company, as claiming any compensation is assumed as a complicated process. 3.Identifying internal factors Companys strength 1. The company has been established for a long time, so it has a strong fundation 2. It is a well-structured company and jobs are defined clearly for everyone in the company allowing them to focus on their individual task, thus developing professionalism 3. Strong relationships between the companys employees 4. Has won awards that may increase its credibility in the eyes of potential market including a Best Life Insurance award 5. Has established connection with other trusted companies 6. PT.Asuransi Jiwasraya has gained its customers loyalty as proven by its award in 2005 Indonesian Customer Loyalty Award Companys weaknesses 1. The com panys background theory, the Max Weber theory of management results in the loss of flexibility. 2. The company is very oriented towards satisfying a limited group of people which is Indonesian people that everything is established in a strong Indonesian culture. 3. The lack of promotional effort 4. The company has yet to utilize technology in its benefit to its maximum potential Formulating strategiesThese are the strategies used by PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya The current strategy applied is new product development, improvement of the quality of human resources and investment on information technology. 1. New product development. The company continues to create new products that serve the needs of the customers better. For example, in the year of 2012, the company created 5 conventional products and 2 unit-linked products which are claimed to be more flexible as the customer can take fund out and invest more fund after(prenominal) 6 months of the first investment. http//www. jiwasraya. co. id/detailberita. php? id=486&lang=id) 2. PT. Asuransi Jiwasraya tries to penetrate market of different segment. The company continues to grow but as the target of increase is not reached, the company expands its area of srvice by targeting new market segment which is of the younger group of people. The insurance company produces new roduct that brings benefit especially to students. (http//keuangan. kontan. co. id/news/kinerja-jiwasraya-meleset-dari-target) 3. Improvement of quality of human resources . employ of technology in the organization for example the establishment of the e-procurement (online purchasing of insurance) by the company (http//systemloverz. wordpress. com/2012/12/14/penerapan-e-procurement-untuk-mewujudkan-good-corporate-governance-di-bumn/) 5. Increasing the number of agents in the organization 6. Establishing and maintaining secure relationship with other companies 7. Gain positive reputation through different charitable actions The company has a good s trategic management process.The flaw to the strategy is that the company is very focused on its goal of reaching more premium and of creating better quality products that the company seem to neglect the fact that promotion is an important part in business. The company needs to increase its budget on advertising and its frequency of advertising. They need to establish ways for target market to find out about them rather than letting the target market find them by chance. This is also true as some people makes their choices based on the fact that the company

The New Form of Presidency and Vice Presidency

With the research that I have gathered I believe Al Gore would pose as a proper candidate to serve our country. However I also believe that George W. Bush would serve us well too. So I have dumbfound up with an idea that perhaps in the next presidential election there could be a republican and a democrat as rivulet mates. Maybe unrivalled could be the vice president and the other the president. I believe that a lot more laws and bills could be passed, and the country could be conform to as a whole.Maybe the country could even come up with a new form of presidency where there are two presidents and one vice president. Then laws and bills may not be passed without both presidents being in agreement. The vice president would perform the same duties, while the presidents could get twice as much done in half the time. straightaway if I had to occupy on a presidential candidate it would be George W. Bush. I would choose him for two reasons, one for his beliefs on social security and two for his views on education. First off with social security and the way that it is currently heading I believe that there will not be enough money left to fund it for my children or me. Bush believes that it is a promise to our nation. He wants to remove it, not for current retirees or those soon approaching it, but for the next generation. To put that money away where itcan earn higher interest rates. Now on to Bushs views on public education. He has already reformed the public schools in Texas, and he wishes to do it all across the country. He wants to offer states the freedom form federal intervention, but receive results in return. Performance checks with also be held annually. With those two reasons alone give me a good enough will to vote for bush. If I were eighteen I would have no trouble when Election Day came.

Contribution of an engineer to develop a country Essay

We entirely know sri lanka is an island , It is c all in all in all(prenominal)ed as Pearl of the indian ocean, as well as a sri lankan we should have a proud, I have it, beca habituate we are the lucky people with everything even with less sparingalal system in the world (proud ancient, temperate climate, curious nature,.. etc.), I think even muddle of the sri lanka is also special. i could find it from a very early article of an English web site. (gravity strength around sri lanka, such as scientific things and different things connecting with Buddhism and other religions) I here doesnt mention it, because here my objective is, discuss roughly the Contribution of engineer to economic development of Sri Lanka. It is good obtain for now, because it has been finished very dangerous ethnic conflict in the world. So in that location is a responsibility to an engineer, develop the economy of sri lanka straightly, because we are borrowers to our motherland, we have use free ed ucation since over 12 years. So we should do maximum to our motherland, this is our country, our mother.. before discuss about it ,we should know about ancient sri lanka and economy around it. For that I decide to break my topic to parts. (i) Who is an engineer(ii) Achievements in plan field in ancient sri lanka(iii) Engineering education in sri lanka(iv) potential difference of engineers in spearheading the economic progress of sri lanka(v) Analyze/appreciate the contribution of sri lankan engineers in recent mega projects(i) Who is an engineerEngineers solve problems and reservation new things work to a greater extent expeditiously and effectively. They hand the theories and principles of science and mathematics to research and develop economical solutions to technical problems. Their work is the link among social needs and applications. Engineers are approach pattern products, design plans, and supervise wrench of buildings and ensure their safety and stability against haz ards, design high up agencys, bridges, rail courses and transit systems, irrigation layaboutals, design dams, design ports, harbours as well as develop and implement amend ways to extract, process, and use of raw materials develop new materials that improve product and take advantage of advances in technology, and electricity for supplying a nations power needs and such as many of etc.Now can you see? With such a wide and vast environment of their activities, it is not difficult to understand what is the title Engineer . So it has been become word of Engineering, one of the most misunderstand word. Now, lot of engineering students have dream to be a software engineer. It is one of the vast subject or valuable academic course/ module in the world .everyone run behind a rabbit. They affect about only salary, not their endowment funds, As a result of this, there are plenty of engineers who do not know the exact meaning of engineering. That itself reflect the tragedy of technical education in the country. If you look at a doctor or accountant, you can see what they try to do. But an engineer, what is he suppose to do? That is important when we do this subject. It is affected to develop economy and technical researches of a country. The key tasks of engineering are Ananalysis and Design. Mathematics and logical idea plays key supportive role in those two tasks together with inventive skills.So I hope you get a clear understanding of what engineering and what engineers are suppose to do in the society. In the next topic we discuss about engineering of ancient sri lanka.(i) Achievements in engineering field in ancient sri lankaEngineering was a key component to the development of a great civilization, that is why it is leavend unthinkable structure in our minds today. concrete is major components of construction materials. However, such large structures in ancient sri lanka that were engineered needed only nature items. (stone, woods) ,they are still remained . One of the biggest engineering performances of this era was the piddle system. aqueduct lines that croak from lakes carried two hundred million gallons of water into whole Rajarata area. The science of the aqueducts was use very small scattered slope changes. Because of gravity, the water would flow downward all the way to whole area from sources. Stones were used to change way of aqueduct lines. As well as Bisokotuwa is special man of sri lankan ancient engineers. Bisokotuwa is located inside the Dam.The water from the reservoir flows into the Bisokotuwa with very high pressure through strong tubes made of stone, which the high pressure water flows in. While the wateris forced to move upward inside the Bisokotuwa, the pressure reduces. Then the water exits the Bisokotuwa to a second Bisokotuwa, where the same process is repeated further reducing the water pressure. Finally the water, unbelievably make grow and calm, flows out through a larger tube to the outside of the Dam . This was an outstanding idea, which was based on mathematics. Such were the skills, and the talents of the Sinhalese engineers. We have had great familiarity about the water pressure. Sinhalese had the Worlds Best Irrigation network.And also building construction was a great engineering in ancient sri lanka. When we consider about pagodas , they have been built very strongly, that means they have used suitable height according to area of pagoda. that is to say ,the have had great knowledge about mathematics such that trigonometry, circumference and area, and effect of wind resistance. As well as they have used suitable materials that sustain for heat of the sun, rainfall such as external effects. As well as Parakramabahu Palace, This is a majestic palace build by king Parakramabahu with have 1000 chambers, forthwith you can see the massive walls , half of the main stairway which led to upper floors. Inside the building you can see parts of melted brick walls caused by intense heat when this was set fire by Tamil invaders at the end of Polonnaruwa era. Around the main palace there are remains of more buildings where the ministers, solders and servants lived. Large holes in the wall probably held massive wooden structures that formed the floor of the upper levels. This is a great achievement by sri lankan ancient engineers.(iii).Engineering nurture in Sri LankaThere are 3 main engineering universities in Sri Lanka, they are Moratuwa,Peradeniya and Ruhuna Universities. Moratuwa university is main engineering universityof sri lanka among 3 of them. In Moratuwa there are electronic and Telecommunication, Computer Science, Civil, Electrical, Chemical and Material engineering degree courses in there. All courses are conducted in English. There is a learning methods in engineering education. That is the way to derive an perfect engineer. There are lot of sources (such as books, internet , .) to self-studies. In University Moratuwa there is a big library with al l facilities such as internet and online databases.And also they have chance to do practical and test experiments. And Lecturers give some points go through subject contents. Actually when we consider about current situation of engineering students , they look like run behind a rabbit. They dont give first place to what their talents, they are difficult to enter most demanded field. So it has been become most comparative situation in University of Moratuwa. As well as should mentionhere there are very talent students there. (iv)Potential of engineers in spearheading the economic progress of sri lankaThere is a great reliance on technology to solve environmental problems around the world today with an near universal reluctance by governments and those who advise them to make the social and political changes that would be necessary to reduce growth in production and consumption.Technology is not independent of society either in its shaping or its effects. In the data of human exper ience, our tools need to interact with every component of our existence physically, environmentally, educationally, psychologically, socio-economically, politically and spiritually in order to be unspoilty relevant to human needs.Sustainable economic development is the challenge of meeting human needs for intrinsic resources, lay down trials products, energy, food transportation, shelter and effective waste management while conserving and protecting environmental for future human and capital development when they are fully harness to create jobs and generate income for the government for the purpose of economic development and transformation of society to the glory of God. To enable engineers fully be part of the economic development, there should be broadening and strengthening the education of engineers and finding innovative ways to achieve needed economic development in all areas while conserving and preserving natural resources. Economics can be defined in many ways followin g are some of the definitions. Economics is the human Science which studies the relationship between scarce resources and their various uses which compete for these resources.Economics is the study of how people choose to allocate limited resources to satisfy their unlimited wants.Economics is the study of how society decide what to green groceries, how to produce and whom to produce. Purpose of studying economics by engineers isto learn how not to be deceived by economists. Economic development is the development of economic wealth of countries or regions for the well-being of their inhabitants.The economic development process supposes that the legal and institutional leeways are made to give incentives for innovation and for investments so as to develop an efficient production and dissemination for goods and services. Economic development is a sustainable increase in living standards that implies increased per capita income, better education and health as well as environmental protection. Development is economics on a social level that has evolved into a professional industry of highly specialized practitioners normally on the job(p) in humans private fusion that are sanctioned and many times at least partially funded by local, regional and state/ provincial tax dollars. These economic development corporations function as individual entities and in some cases as departments of local governments. Their role is to seek out new economic opportunity and prevail their existing business wealth. There is intensive competition between communities, states and nations for new economic projects.The creation and retention struggle is further intensified by the use of many variations of economic incentives to the potential business. These incentives vary greatly and can be highly controversial. The measurement of success within this industry is normal job creation, economic growth and increased or retained tax base. Sustainable economic development can only occur as a result of the creation of a world wide caring community. A Community of people who are working together for common ends and to meet the basic needs of all our people. The concept of sustainable economic development is central to the achievement of these key goals. It can be taught of in terms of policies and programs designed to meet their own needs. The achievement of sustainable economic development requires a new and different approach to policy making and its implementation. The Government is looking for greater integration and co-ordination of policy making and its implementation across the frequent sector and across social economic and environmental policy portfolios. It is also looking for an approach characterized by greater partnership between central government, local government, economic entities, private industry and other community groups.Engineers must lead this new industrial economic revolution.There is some slender leadership by professional organizations suc h as theinstitute of electrical and electronic engineers(IEEE), world engineering partnership for sustainable development (WEPSD), world compact of engineering organization (WFED), Nigeria society of engineers (NSE), American society of civil engineers (ASCE), and world business council for sustainable development (WBCSD), among others to make sustainable economic development high precedence in engineering and business both in practice and in the education of future engineers. They are promoting codes of practice education, mentoring programs, and policy changes that will instigate the engineering profession to lead this economic revelation. The engineering courses being studied in higher institution of learning should also include borrowed courses that bother on acquiring business knowledge and skills at the first and at the second year level in order for the engineers to be able to relate their engineering practice to the business reality on ground in order to contribute fully to the economic development of their respective nations. Thats one way the engineers can be fully integrated into the running of the countries of their origin.Designing a sustainable future requires a paradigm shift towards a systematic scene which encompasses the complex interdependence of individual, social, cultural, spiritual, economic and political activities and the biosphere.The engineers of the future must be a good deal more interdisciplinary the lines between the traditional engineering disciples must be much more fluid. Engineers will have to join forces with biologist, chemist, meteorologist, economics, planners, political scientists, ethicists, religionists and community leaders in unprecedented ways to lead the society on a sustainable economic path. Since it is likely that we will double the amount of housing and building construction in the twenty-first century (and buildings utilize a horrifying amount of materials and energy) it is imperative that civil enginee rs team up with architects, planners and other engineers to revolutionize construction. I believe that there is a special role for civil/environmental engineers in the future. Rather than being engineers that primarily design technologies to control or remediate pollution, I believe the environmental engineers will be interdisciplinary, system specialists who will bring together, coordinate and manage the entire specialist to solve complex environmental problems and promote sustainable development.Moreover, all engineers must play a much stronger role in the usual policy process to provide the right incentives for industry and others to move on sustainable path so that engineers can be encouraged and supported to design sustainable technology for the purpose of economic development that benefits society in a holistic way now and in future. As Don Roberts advocates, we must become better informed of the interdependence of environmental, economic, health and social issues, inform othe rs and become leaders, otherwise the agenda will be set by others who neither know the benefits nor the limit of technology in a sustainable modern society. Such a shift in the thinking, values, and actions of all individuals and institution worldwide calls for a long term societal effort to make environmental and sustainable concerns a control theme in all education, particularly for engineers, economists and business people. If we are to achieve a sustainable future, institutions of higher learning must provide the awareness, knowledge, skills, and values that equip individuals to pursue life goals in a manner that sustains human and non-human well-being.This is critical since higher education prepares most of the professionals, who develop, manage, teach and influence societys institutions. The organization of seminars and workshops by professional engineering organizations like IEEE and NSE will go a long way in educating their engineer members on their role in contributing effe ctively to national economic development. Several prominent engineering schools such as Georgia Technology are making important strides by making sustainable technology a core mission and MIT with its program in Environmental Education and Research (PEER). Despite these effort and those of a number of Colleges and Universities which have active environmental studies programs and build up graduate professionals, education and research about the interdependence of and a sustainable relationship between human and the rest of the environment is not a priority in higher education. Sustainable economic development relies on technological change to achieve its aim but will governments take the tough move that are required to force radical technological innovation rather than the technological fixes that have been evident to date?Such measures would require a long-run economic cost while industry will readjust. It would appear that so long as sustainable development is restricted to mini mal low-cost adjustment that do not require value changes, institutional changes or any sort of radical cultural adjustment, theenvironment will continue to be disruptive unless sustainable change occurs, the present generation may not be able to pass on an equivalent stock of environment goods to the next generation. First, the grade of loss of animal and plant species, arable land, water quality, tropical forest and cultural heritage are especially serious. Second, perhaps more widely recognise is the fact that we will not pass on to future generation, the ozone-layer or global climate system that the current generation inherited. A third operator that contributes overwhelmingly to the anxieties about the first two is the prospective impact of continuing population growth and the environmental consequences if rising standards of material income around the world produce the same sorts of consumption patterns that are characteristic of the current industrialized countries.Even i f people put their faith in the ability of human ingenuity in the form of technology to be able to preserve their life styles and ensure an ever increasing level of consumption for technological systems rather than continue to apply technological fixes that are seldom satisfactory in the long term, technological optimum does not escape the need for fundamental social change and a shift in priorities. That was the mistake many in the Appropriate Technology movement made. It takes more than the existence of appropriate or clean technologies to ensure full sustainable economic development. Engineers have a leading role in planning, designing, building and ensuring a sustainable future. Engineers provide the bridge between science and society. In this role, engineers must actively promote and participate in multidisciplinary teams with other professionals, such as ecologists, economists, medical doctors, and sociologists, to effectively address the issues and challenges of sustainable e conomic development because engineers working on a global scale will help promote public recognition of the engineers and understanding of the needs and opportunities in todays ready developing world in order to ensure the engineers role in a sustainable economic development in it. (v).Analyze/appreciate the contribution of sri lankan engineers in recent mega projects A megaproject is an extremely large-scale investment project.Megaprojects include bridges, tunnels, highways, railways, airports, seaports, power plants, dams, wastewater projects, Special Economic Zones, oil and natural gas extraction projects, public buildings, information technology systems, aerospace projects,weapons systems and, more recently, large-scale mixed use waterfront redevelopments however, the most common megaprojects are in the categories of hydroelectric facilities, nuclear power plants and large public transportation projects. In Sri Lanka recently we have built 2 International Cricket Stadiums that located Pallekale and Hambanthota. That is a great mega project that can earn vast income. And also Hambanthota harbour and Hambanthota Airport are also big projects. Nowadays it is going on road development programme. These are some projects of in Sri Lanka. They can contribute to sri lankan economy straightly.So there are many ways to contribute to economy development of sri lanka to an engineer after ethnic coflict.

The Lost Symbol Chapter 7-11

CHAPTER 7Katherine Solomon zip across the parking lot by dint of the rimed rain, deprivation she had worn much than jeans and a cashmere sweater. As she neared the buildings main entrance, the roar of the giant air purifiers got louder. She barely heard them, her ears still ringing from the phone call shed erect received.That which your associate believes is hidden in D.C. . . . it can be found.Katherine found the nonion almost impossible to believe. She and the caller still had much to discuss and had agreed to do so later that evening.Reaching the main doorsteps, she felt the same sense of excitement she always felt upon entering the gargantuan building. Nobody admits this place is here.The contract on the door announcedSMITHSONIAN MUSEUM SUPPORT CENTER(SMSC)The Smithsonian Institution, despite having more than a dozen massive museums on the National Mall, had a collection so huge that sole(prenominal) 2 percent of it could be on display at both one time. The other 98 percent of the collection had to be stored nighwhere. And that somewhere . . . was here.Not surprisingly, this building was home to an astonishingly diverse array of artifactsgiant Buddhas, handwritten codices, poisoned darts from New Guinea, jewel-encrusted knives, a kayak made of baleen. every flake mind-boggling were the buildings natural treasuresplesiosaur ske allowons, a priceless meteorite collection, a giant squid, even a collection of elephant skulls brought back from an African safari by slick Roosevelt.But none of this was why the Smithsonian secretary, pricking Solomon, had introduced his sister to the SMSC three eld ago. He had brought her to this place not to behold scientific marvels, but rather to cause them. And that was exactly what Katherine had been doing.Deep within this building, in the darkness of the most remote recesses, was a small scientific science laboratoryoratory un corresponding any other in the world. The recent breakthroughs Katherine had ma de here in the field of Noetic Science had ramifications across every disciplinefrom physics, to history, to philosophy, to religion. Soon every issue will change, she thought.As Katherine entered the lobby, the front desk keep back quickly stashed his radio and yanked the earplugs from his ears. Ms. Solomon He smiled broadly.Redskins?He blushed, looking guilty. Pregame.She smiled. I wont tell. She walked to the metal detector and emptied her pockets. When she slid the gold Cartier watch from her wrist, she felt the usual pang of sadness. The timepiece had been a gift from her mother for Katherines eighteenth birth solar day. Almost ten years had now passed since her mother had died violently . . . passing away in Katherines arms.So, Ms. Solomon? the guard whispered jokingly. argon you ever gonna tell anybody what youre doing back there?She glanced up. Someday, Kyle. Not tonight.Come on, he pressed. A secret lab . . . in a secret museum? You moldiness be doing something cool.Miles beyond cool, Katherine thought as she collected her things. The truth was that Katherine was doing science so advanced that it no longer even resembled science.CHAPTER 8Robert Langdon stood frozen in the door of the National Statuary Hall and studied the startling scene before him. The room was precisely as he remembered ita balanced semicircle reinforced in the style of a Greek amphitheater. The graceful arched walls of sandstone and Italian plaster were punctuated by columns of variegated breccia, interspersed with the nations statuary collectionlife-size statues of thirty-eight corking Americans standing in a semicircle on a stark expanse of black-and-white marble tile.It was exactly as Langdon had recalled from the lecture he had at once attended here.Except for one thing.Tonight, the room was empty.No chairs. No audience. No peter Solomon. Just a handful of tourists milling around aimlessly, oblivious to Langdons rarefied entrance. Did gibe mean the Rotunda? He peered do wn the south corridor toward the Rotunda and could see tourists milling around in there, too.The echoes of the clock chime had faded. Langdon was now officially late.He hurried back into the hallway and found a docent. Excuse me, the lecture for the Smithsonian event tonight? Where is that being held?The docent hesitated. Im not sure, sir. When does it start? at a timeThe man shook his head. I dont know about any Smithsonian event this eveningnot here, at least.Bewildered, Langdon hurried back toward the center of the room, scanning the entire space. Is Solomon playing some flesh of joke? Langdon couldnt imagine it. He pulled out his cell phone and the fax page from this morning and dialed Peters number.His phone took a moment to locate a auspicate deep down the enormous building. Finally, it began to ring.The acquainted(predicate) Confederate accent answered. Peter Solomons office, this is Anthony. May I help you?Anthony Langdon said with relief. Im glad youre still there. Thi s is Robert Langdon. There seems to be some confusion about the lecture. Im standing in the Statuary Hall, but theres nobody here. Has the lecture been moved to a different room?I dont believe so, sir. let me check. His assistant paused a moment. Did you confirm with Mr. Solomon directly?Langdon was confused. No, I confirmed with you, Anthony. This morningYes, I recall that. There was a silence on the line. That was a bit careless of you, dont you think, Professor?Langdon was now amply alert. I beg your pardon?Consider this . . . the man said. You received a fax asking you to call a number, which you did. You spoke to a total stranger who said he was Peter Solomons assistant. Then you willingly boarded a private plane to Washington and climbed into a delay car. Is that repair?Langdon felt a chill race through his body. Who the hell is this? Where is Peter?Im afraid Peter Solomon has no idea youre in Washington today. The mans southern accent disappeared, and his voice morphed int o a deeper, mellifluous whisper. You are here, Mr. Langdon, because I want you here.CHAPTER 9Inside the Statuary Hall, Robert Langdon clutched his cell phone to his ear and paced in a tight circle. Who the hell are you?The mans reply was a silky calm whisper. Do not be alarmed, Professor. You provoke been summoned here for a reason.Summoned? Langdon felt like a caged animal. Try kidnappedHardly. The mans voice was eerily serene. If I wanted to harm you, you would be utter in your Town Car safe now. He let the words hang for a moment. My intentions are purely noble, I secernate you. I would simply like to offer you an invitation. No thanks. Ever since his experiences in europium over the last several years, Langdons unwanted celebrity had made him a magnet for nut-cases, and this one had just crossed a very serious line. Look, I dont know what the hell is going on here, but Im hanging upUnwise, said the man. Your window of opportunity is very small if you want to save Peter Solo mons soul.Langdon pull a sharp breath. What did you say?Im sure you heard me.The way this man had uttered Peters name had halt Langdon cold. What do you know about Peter?At this point, I know his deepest secrets. Mr. Solomon is my guest, and I can be a persuasive host.This cant be happening. You dont have Peter.I answered his private cell phone. That should give you pause.Im trade the police.No need, the man said. The authorities will join you momentarily.What is this lunatic talking about? Langdons tone hardened. If you have Peter, put him on the phone right now. Thats impossible. Mr. Solomon is pin down in an unfortunate place. The man paused. He is in the Araf.Where? Langdon realized he was clutching his phone so tightly his fingers were going numb.The Araf? Hamistagan? That place to which Dante devoted the canticle immediately hobby his legendary Inferno?The mans religious and literary references solidified Langdons suspicion that he was dealing with a madman. The second can ticle. Langdon knew it well nobody escaped Phillips Exeter Academy without interpreting Dante. Youre saying you think Peter Solomon is . . . in purgatory?A crude word you Christians use, but yes, Mr. Solomon is in the in-between.The mans words hung in Langdons ear. Are you saying Peter is . . . dead?Not exactly, no. Not exactly? Langdon yelled, his voice echoing sharply in the hall. A family of tourists looked over at him. He turned away and let down his voice. Death is usually an all-or-nothing thingYou surprise me, Professor. I expected you to have a better understanding of the mysteries of life and death. There is a world in betweena world in which Peter Solomon is hovering at the moment. He can either return to your world, or he can move on to the next . . . depending on your actions right now.Langdon tried to process this. What do you want from me?Its simple. You have been given access to something quite antediluvian patriarch. And tonight, you will share it with me.I have n o idea what youre talking about.No? You pretend not to understand the ancient secrets that have been entrusted to you?Langdon felt a sudden sinking sensation, now suppose what this was probably about. Ancient secrets. He had not uttered a word to anyone about his experiences in Paris several years earlier, but Grail fanatics had followed the media reporting closely, some connecting the dots and believing Langdon was now privy to secret information regarding the set apart Grailperhaps even its location.Look, Langdon said, if this is about the Holy Grail, I can assure you I know nothing more thanDont insult my intelligence, Mr. Langdon, the man snapped. I have no interest in anything so frivolous as the Holy Grail or mankinds pathetic debate over whose version of history is correct. Circular arguments over the semantics of faith hold no interest for me. Those are questions answered only through death.The stark words leftfield Langdon confused. Then what the hell is this about?The man paused for several seconds. As you may know, there exists within this city an ancient portal.An ancient portal?And tonight, Professor, you will unlock it for me. You should be honored I contacted youthis is the invitation of your lifetime. You alone have been chosen.And you have lost your mind. Im sorry, but youve chosen poorly, Langdon said. I dont know anything about any ancient portal.You dont understand, Professor. It was not I who chose you . . . it was Peter Solomon. What? Langdon replied, his voice barely a whisper.Mr. Solomon told me how to find the portal, and he confessed to me that only one man on earth could unlock it. And he said that man is you.If Peter said that, he was mistaken . . . or lying.I think not. He was in a fragile state when he confessed that fact, and I am inclined to believe him.Langdon felt a stab of anger. Im warning you, if you hurt Peter in any Its far too late for that, the man said in an amused tone. Ive already taken what I need from Peter Sol omon. But for his sake, I nominate you provide what I need from you. Time is of the essence . . . for both of you. I suggest you find the portal and unlock it. Peter will point the way.Peter? I thought you said Peter was in purgatory.As above, so below, the man said.Langdon felt a deepening chill. This strange response was an ancient hermetic adage that proclaimed a belief in the physical connection between heaven and earth. As above, so below. Langdon eyed the vast room and wondered how everything had veered so suddenly out of control tonight. Look, I dont know how to find any ancient portal. Im calling the police.It really hasnt dawned on you yet, has it? Why you were chosen?No, Langdon said.It will, he replied, chuckling. whatsoever moment now.Then the line went dead.Langdon stood rigid for several terrifying moments, trying to process what had just happened.Suddenly, in the distance, he heard an unexpected sound.It was coming from the Rotunda. someone was screaming.CHAPTER 10R obert Langdon had entered the Capitol Rotunda many times in his life, but never at a full sprint. As he ran through the north entrance, he spotty a group of tourists clustered in the center of the room. A small boy was screaming, and his parents were trying to console him. Others were crowding around, and several security guards were doing their best to revivify order.He pulled it out of his sling, someone said frantically, and just left it thereAs Langdon drew nearer, he got his first glimpse of what was causing all the commotion. Admittedly, the reject on the Capitol floor was odd, but its presence hardly warranted screaming.The device on the floor was one Langdon had seen many times. The Harvard art department had dozens of theselife-size bendable models used by sculptors and painters to help them render the human bodys most complex feature, which, surprisingly, was not the human face but rather the human hand. Someone left a mannequin hand in the Rotunda?Mannequin hands, or handequins as some called them, had articulated fingers enabling an artist to pose the hand in whatsoever position he wanted, which for sophomoric college students was often with the middle finger extended straight up in the air. This handequin, however, had been positioned with its index finger and thumb pointing up toward the ceiling.As Langdon drew nearer, though, he realized this handequin was unusual. Its plastic surface was not smooth like most. Instead, the surface was mottled and slightly wrinkled, and appeared almost . . .Like real skin.Langdon stopped abruptly.Now he saw the blood. My GodThe severed wrist appeared to have been skewered onto a spiked wooden base so that it would stand up. A wave of sickness rushed over him. Langdon inched closer, unable to breathe, seeing now that the tips of the index finger and thumb had been decorated with tiny tattoos. The tattoos, however, were not what held Langdons attention. His gaze moved instantly to the familiar golden ring on the fourth finger.No.Langdon recoiled. His world began to spin as he realized he was looking at the severed right hand of Peter Solomon.CHAPTER 11Why isnt Peter answering? Katherine Solomon wondered as she hung up her cell phone. Where is he?For three years, Peter Solomon had always been the first to cause for their weekly seven P.M. Sunday-night meetings. It was their private family ritual, a way to remain connected before the start of a new week, and for Peter to stay up-to-date on Katherines work at the lab.Hes never late, she thought, and he always answers his phone. To make matters worse, Katherine was still not sure what she was going to say to him when he did finally arrive. How do I even begin to ask him about what I found out today?Her footsteps clicked rhythmically down the cement corridor that ran like a spine through the SMSC. Known as The Street, the corridor connected the buildings five massive storage pods. Forty feet overhead, a circulatory system of orange ductwork throbbed with the heartbeat of the buildingthe pulsing sounds of thousands of cubic feet of filtered air being circulated.Normally, during her nearly quarter-mile walk to her lab, Katherine felt calmed by the breathing sounds of the building. Tonight, however, the pulsing had her on edge. What she had learned about her brother today would have roiled anyone, and yet because Peter was the only family she had in the world, Katherine felt especially disturbed to think he cogency be keeping secrets from her.As far as she knew, he had kept a secret from her only once . . . a wonderful secret that was hidden at the end of this very hallway. Three years ago, her brother had walked Katherine down this corridor, introducing her to the SMSC by proudly showing off some of the buildings more unusual itemsthe Mars meteorite ALH-84001, the handwritten pictographic diary of Sitting Bull, a collection of wax-sealed Ball jars containing original specimens collected by Charles Darwin.At one point , they walked past a heavy door with a small window. Katherine caught a glimpse of what lay beyond and gasped. What in the world is that?Her brother chuckled and kept walking. Pod Three. Its called Wet Pod. Pretty unusual sight, isnt it?Terrifying is more like it. Katherine hurried aft(prenominal) him. This building was like another planet.What I really want to show you is in Pod Five, her brother said, guiding her down the seemingly endless corridor. Its our newest addition. It was built to house artifacts from the basement of the National Museum of Natural History. That collection is scheduled for relocation here in about five years, which means Pod Five is sitting empty at the moment.Katherine glanced over. Empty? So why are we looking at it?Her brothers gray eyes flashed a familiar mischief. It occurred to me that because nobody is using the space, peradventure you could use it.Me?Sure. I thought maybe you could use a dedicated lab spacea facility where you can actually perfo rm some of the theoretical experiments youve been developing for all these years.Katherine stared at her brother in shock. But, Peter, those experiments are theoretical To actually perform them would be almost impossible.Nothing is impossible, Katherine, and this building is amend for you. The SMSC is not just a warehouse of treasures its one of the worlds most advanced scientific research facilities. Were constantly taking pieces from the collection and examining them with the best quantitative technologies funds can buy. All the equipment you could possibly need would be here at your disposal.Peter, the technologies required to devolve these experiments areAlready in place. He smiled broadly. The lab is done.Katherine stopped short.Her brother pointed down the long corridor. Were going to see it now.Katherine could barely speak. You . . . you built me a lab?Its my job. The Smithsonian was established to advance scientific knowledge. As secretary, I must take that charge serious ly. I believe the experiments youve proposed have the potential to push the boundaries of science into uncharted territory. Peter stopped and looked her squarely in the eyes. Whether or not you were my sister, I would feel obliged to support this research. Your ideas are brilliant. The world deserves to see where they lead.Peter, I cant possiblyOkay, relax . . . it was my own money, and nobodys using Pod Five right now. When youre done with your experiments, youll move out. Besides, Pod Five has some unique properties that will be perfect for your work.Katherine could not imagine what a massive, empty pod might offer that would serve her research, but she sensed she was about to find out. They had just reached a steel door with boldly stenciled lettersPOD 5Her brother inserted his happen upon card into a slot and an electronic keypad lit up. He raised his finger to type his access code, but paused, arching his eyebrows in the same mischievous way he always had as a boy. You sure yo ure ready?She nodded. My brother, always the showman.Stand back. Peter hit the keys.The steel door hissed loudly open.Beyond the threshold was only inky blackness . . . a yawning void. A hollow moan seemed to echo out of the depths. Katherine felt a cold blast of air emanating from within. It was like staring into the Grand Canyon at night.Picture an empty airline hangar waiting for a authorise of Airbuses, her brother said, and you get the basic idea.Katherine felt herself take a step backward.The pod itself is far too voluminous to be heated, but your lab is a thermally insulated cinder- block room, roughly a cube, located in the farthest corner of the pod for maximum separation.Katherine tried to picture it. A box inside a box. She strained to see into the darkness, but it was absolute. How far back?Pretty far . . . a football field would fit easily in here. I should warn you, though, the walk is a little unnerving. Its exceptionally dark.Katherine peered tentatively around the corner. No light switch?Pod Five is not yet pumped-up(a) for electricity.But . . . then how can a lab function?He winked. Hydrogen fuel cell.Katherines jaw dropped. Youre kidding, right?Enough clean power to run a small town. Your lab enjoys full radio-frequency separation from the rest of the building. Whats more, all pod exteriors are sealed with photo-resistant membranes to protect the artifacts inside from solar radiation. Essentially, this pod is a sealed, energy-neutral environment.Katherine was starting to comprehend the appeal of Pod 5. Because much of her work centered on quantifying previously unknown energy fields, her experiments needed to be performed in a location isolated from any extraneous radiation or white noise. This included interference as subtle as brain radiation or thought emissions generated by people nearby. For this reason, a university campus or hospital lab wouldnt work, but a deserted pod at the SMSC could not have been more perfect.Lets go back and h ave a look. Her brother was grinning as he stepped into the vast darkness. Just follow me.Katherine stalled at the threshold. Over a c yards in total darkness? She wanted to suggest a flashlight, but her brother had already disappeared into the abyss.Peter? she called. terpsichore of faith, he called back, his voice already weaken away. Youll find your way. Trust me.Hes kidding, right? Katherines heart was pounding as she stepped a few feet over the threshold, trying to peer into the darkness. I cant see a thing Suddenly the steel door hissed and slammed shut behind her, plunging her into total blackness. Not a speck of light anywhere. Peter?Silence.Youll find your way. Trust me.Tentative, she inched forward blindly. Leap of faith? Katherine could not even see her hand directly in front of her face. She kept moving forward, but within a matter of seconds, she was only if lost. Where am I going?That was three years ago.Now, as Katherine arrived at the same heavy metal door, she re alized how far she had come since that first night. Her labnicknamed the Cubehad become her home, a sanctuary within the depths of Pod 5. Exactly as her brother had predicted, she had found her way through the darkness that night, and every day sincethanks to an ingeniously simple guidance system that her brother had let her discover for herself.Far more important, her brothers other prediction had come true as well Katherines experiments had produced astonishing results, particularly in the last six months, breakthroughs that would alter entire paradigms of thinking. Katherine and her brother had agreed to keep her results absolutely secret until the implications were more fully understood. One day soon, however, Katherine knew she would publish some of the most transformative scientific revelations in human history.A secret lab in a secret museum, she thought, inserting her key card into the Pod 5 door. The keypad lit up, and Katherine typed her PIN.The steel door hissed open.The familiar hollow moan was accompanied by the same blast of cold air. As always, Katherine felt her pulse rate start to climb.Strangest commute on earth.Steeling herself for the journey, Katherine Solomon glanced at her watch as she stepped into the void. Tonight, however, a troubled thought followed her inside. Where is Peter?